practicable

Etymology

The revised OED takes it as borrowed from Medieval Latin prācticābilis (“capable of being used”), recorded before 1308 in a British source, and regards only its later senses as modelled on the French word;^[2] the American Heritage Dictionary gives the same Latin source.^[3] Other dictionaries take it as borrowed from French praticable,^{[4][5][6][7][8]} from pratiquer (“to put into practice”),^[4][5][6] with the form influenced by practic.^[9][8] Barnhart forms it in English from practic and -able, partly under the influence of the French word,^[10] and Etymonline starts from a French form pratiquable of the 1590s.^[11] According to the OED, the feasibility sense is attested later in French than in English, from before 1679, and the "traversable" and stage senses only from 1694 and 1832.^[2] The Medieval Latin word comes from prācticō (“to practise”), from prāctica (“practice”),^[3][12] from Ancient Greek πρακτική (praktikḗ, “practical science”), the feminine of πρακτικός (praktikós, “fit for action, practical”), from πράσσω (prássō, “to make, do”).^[3] Compare Italian praticabile, recorded of a route from 1573 and of an idea from 1618.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Able to be done or put into practice: 1593, in Gabriel Harvey's Pierces Supererogation.^[2][9] Other dictionaries date it later: 1670 in Barnhart, the 1670s in Etymonline, the mid-17th century in the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English.^{[10][11][5][6]}

Semantic evolution

From 1710 it was used of a route or passage that can be traversed, at first in the London Gazette;^[2][5][11] the sense was then extended, in 1837 in Dickens's Pickwick Papers, to anything functional and real, above all to stage props and scenery that really work.^[2][5][9] Johnson (1755) defines it as "performable; feasible".^[13] As a noun it meant a feasible idea in 1677, and since 1859 has been a theatre word for a usable prop.^[2] A slang sense "gullible" is recorded in 1809.^[2]

Timeline

• 1593 – able to be done, feasible.^[2][9]
• 1677 – noun, a feasible idea (rare, obsolete).^[2]
• 1710 – of a route, able to be traversed.^[2][11]
• 1809 – easily imposed on, gullible (slang, obsolete).^[2]
• 1837 – functional; of stage props, working.^[2]
• 1859 – noun, a usable stage prop.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Able to be done or carried out; feasible: a practicable scheme for draining the marsh.^[7][9][2]
2. Able to be used; usable.^[7][9][2]
3. Of a road or passage, able to be traversed.^[2][5]
4. Of stage props or scenery, working and real rather than sham: a practicable window in the set.^[9][2][5]

Noun

1. (theatre) A prop or piece of scenery that can actually be used.^[2]

Word family

• practicability
• practicably
• practicableness

Related words

• practical
• practice
• practic

Usage notes

The Century Dictionary, quoted by Etymonline, distinguishes it from possible: what is possible could be done if the powers or means could be obtained, while practicable is limited to what can be done with the means one has or can get.^[11] Dictionary.com also treats possible, practicable and practical together.^[12]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.